To Take Away The Pain
by ifeelfreaky
Summary: I look around my new home: District Two. The Capitol has been overthrown everything is the way I've always wanted it to be. Except for my Catnip. She's not by my side with her hand in mine. Gale/Katniss


**Hello! I'm a migrant from the Robin Hood BBC (TV shows) and Robin Hood (Books). I just sent a message to an author who put a Hunger Games fic up for adoption that I'd take it so this is a bit of practice piece in case I get the adoption rights. It's post-Mockingjay and is about Gale coming into District Two and all the pain he feels regarding Katniss and Prim. It's mostly about the pain, though. I hope you read, review, and enjoy! *Note: I haven't read the series very recently so I may not have gotten all the little details right. If you do spot any major ones, kindly point them out in a review. Thank you!**

I look around my new home: District Two. The Capitol has been overthrown everything is the way I've always wanted it to be. Except for my Catnip. She's not by my side with her hand in mine.

I've caused her more pain than I ever thought I could. The bomb that killed her precious Prim was of my own design. I didn't drop it, I didn't even know that it would kill Prim, but it is still my fault somehow. I've always known that Katniss cared for her little sister more than her own life. That's why she volunteered for the Hunger Games. That's why she would make sure Prim had food before she ate any herself. That's why she was in the woods risking her life to get game. That's why we were such good friends.

And now she won't even look at me, much less speak to me.

I step inside a bar and ask for the strongest thing they have. I slump in my stool at the counter until my drink comes. Inside the glass the mud colored liquid bubbles a little.

Katniss doesn't even know how much pain she's caused me. When Peeta's name was drawn from the Games I had wanted to volunteer in his place, not for his sake but because I knew that, together, Katniss and I could survive. We could have survived anything if we had eachother.

But we had promised that if the one couldn't take care of their family the other would. I had to make sure that my own family and hers had food each day. I'd promised.

Because of that promise I had watched the Hunger Games unfold in Thirteen with rapt attention. The pain of watching her false relationship with _Peeta_ – I want to spit at the thought of his name – had driven my nerves to their end. And watching him fumble about only made me want to take his head and knock it against a wall. He could have gotten my Catnip killed with his ignorance alone.

I had watched as the Capitol sighed and lamented about how their 'beautiful and inspiring love' might come to its end in the arena when each time they talked about it pain constricted my heart.

I take a swig of my drink and feel a fog descending over my mind already. Good.

I'd watched her scream his name at the end and seen the look on her face.

She came home and I was so relieved and at the same time angry with her. And then the damn wedding preparations! No matter that she'd intervened at my whipping, or that I'd heard what she'd said when she thought I was listening. None of that could change the fact that the Capitol was expecting a wedding.

That's where I had taken some of my resolve to overthrow the Capitol. If they were no more then Katniss wouldn't have to get married under any sort of pretense. If she could have chosen for herself to actually marry Peeta, then maybe I wouldn't have been so angry.

Instead, I could say nothing against it. I had been downsized to merely being her cousin.

And then she had been forced back into the arena and of course, _Peeta_ had gone with her and told the world that she was pregnant.

I had to watch the pity unfold around every Capitol citizen as they mourned for Katniss' and Peeta's fake baby and their fake relationship. I had stopped watching because I couldn't anymore. I would ask if she had lived at the end of the day and never even look at the screen. It hurt too much.

The bombs had fallen and I had saved everyone I could and kept my promise to Katniss and looked out for her mother and Prim.

Does Katniss even remember that promise we made? Does she even realize that there wasn't any event or situation that would change that promise for me? I have only ever looked out for Prim. If I could change the past and never have suggested the bomb, I would. I didn't know it would kill` Prim and never wanted it to. I swore to Katniss that I'd care for Prim and there's nothing in this world that would turn me against that promise.

I swallow the last of my drink and order another. The fog in my mind is so thick that coherent thoughts can't form. "I'm sorry Katniss," I try to say but the words are slurred. My drink is set before me and the bartender looks at me questioningly.

"Are you sure you need another one?" he asks me.

I nod shakily. The pain is already disappearing. All the pain of the last few years and especially the last few months along with my knowledge of all the pain I've caused my beautiful Catnip. If being this intoxicated is what it takes for the fingers of hurt clamped around my heart to loosen then this is what I'll do.

I gulp down the drink in only a few minutes. My vision swims and no rapid blinking will clear it.

A little girl comes in, and her voice just barely makes it to my ears when she says, "Daddy, guess what!"

The bartender looks at her admonishingly. "You aren't supposed to come in here Greyti."

"I know, but I have to tell you something," she says.

I turned to look at her and my vision focuses on her face. "Prim," I whisper although no one hears me. It was a mind trick. A cruel trick to play since all the pain I tried so hard to forget comes rushing back. "Katniss," I moan, holding a hand to my pounding head. "Please forgive me."

I can't stay anymore, I have to leave. I try to stand up but only find myself falling to the floor the moment I do. My stomach heaves and all the alcohol I've just consumed comes rushing back up. I somehow make it out the door to vomit in the street.

I see a bench and crawl to it and lay down, knowing I can't make it home in this state. What _home_? I don't have a home in Two, I realize. I have a place to sleep and eat, of course, but home would always be wherever Katniss was and she wouldn't even look at me. I would never have a home again.

**Did you like it? Hate it? Wish it had a happier ending? (Sorry, this is a one-shot and where it ends...) Please let me know any thoughts you might have in a review! The space aliens and gremlins will thank you! And I will also thank you with a PM! (Anonymous reviews are as welcome as those that are signed!)**


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